Thu Sep 29, 2011 at 00:04:31 AM EDT

Despite crying foul for "class warfare" it is no secret that Republicans and some kindred spirits in the Democratic Party have been waging open war on working America for the last few decades. Most recently that war has included an all-out assault on workers who are organized and can bargain to attain the middle-class. Whether in the private or public sector no worker that makes a fair wage, has benefits and can collectively bargain is safe. As Kentucky's Mad Doctor Rand Paul put it, we all gotta get used to working for less. Well, like a typical Republican all of us but him.

Part of this war on middle-class workers has long included the United States Post Office. It is no secret that the Post Office has suffered as technology has brought newer, quicker ways to send and recieve information. That has caused many Republicans to salivate at finally being able to dismantle a successful government institution full of middle-class workers.

But just like their eternal quest to starve the beast a big part of the problems that have beset the Post Office can be traced to one source. You see, one long standing Republican trick has been to get into power, run something into the ground and then whine incessantly about how it doesn't work. As we pointed out here at Hillbilly Report a while back, this is just what they did to the Post Office:

Why is the Post Office suffering so much and losing so much money?? The root can be found in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006, passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Republican president.

Now, think about this for a minute. Republicans do not want to pass any healthcare reforms which would help those who cannot afford insurance. They do not want to pass any new regulations that require employers to offer their employees health coverage or pay a penalty. They do not want to do anything that requires corporate America to do anything but what they want to do which is to fleece the American worker, ship our jobs overseas and pocket huge profits all while crashing our economy.

With that in mind, what did the Republicans do in 2006?? Despite the fact that they will not even require private corporations making huge profits to fund part of their employees healthcare in 2006 they forced to Post Office to PRE-FUND the healthcare of their workers who have not even retired yet. No other corporation or organization is forced to do this.

Don't take my word for it however. Ralph Nader crunched the numbers and found that as with everything else in government the real problem is Republican and Corporate Democrat idiocy:

The deep hole of debt that is currently facing the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is entirely due to the burdensome prepayments for future retiree health care benefits imposed by Congress in the PAEA. By June 2011, the USPS saw a total net deficit of $19.5 billion, $12.7 billion of which was borrowed money from Treasury (leaving just $2.3 billion left until the USPS hits its statutory borrowing limit of $15 billion). This $19.5 billion deficit almost exactly matches the $20.95 billion the USPS made in prepayments to the fund for future retiree health care benefits by June 2011.

If the prepayments required under PAEA were never enacted into law, the USPS would not have a net deficiency of nearly $20 billion, but instead be in the black by at least $1.5 billion. Should the Postmaster General's predictions4 of a nearly $10 billion loss by the end of the year prove accurate, the USPS would have a net deficit of almost $24 billion. However, it would also have been required to make a total of nearly $26.5 billion in prepayments in accordance with PAEA by that point. Eliminating these prepayments, in this scenario, would allow the USPS to be in the black by $2.5 billion -- instead of seeing a net deficit of $24 billion.

Now, instead of pointing fingers and trying to further decimate the middle-class and the economy Rep. Stephen Lynch has offered common sense legislation to allow the Post Office to spend it's own funds to pay it's own bills. These are not taxpayer funds after all. Why are they expected to operate under different rules than Corporations or other organizations.

As with most things that plague our country right now the problems at the Post Office can be attributed to the longest war in history, the Republican War on the American Worker. If they were not so determined to break down any power workers have to make a fair wage and benefits and share in the prosperity they have created our economy and nation as a whole would recover from the crash caused by their greed.

We need to tell our Congressfolks to support working Americans and to support H.R. 1351.IH. Working America simply must realize that the "class war" has begun long ago and it is far past time we started standing together and fighting back.

The right-wing wants two things. Get rid of these "UNION JOBS" and make the economy look as bad as they can no matter how it affects the people so they can regain the White House.I still say that when "McMoney" said that his main objective was to make Obama a one term President,is an impeachable statement. Like "TREASON", which is what it is to a lot of us. One more thing. When UPS and FEDEX are not making money what do they do? Raise rates??? Thanks...